Whispers from the Dead (Serenity's Plain Secrets Book 2) (12 page)

“No,” she whispered harshly. “We don’t have time. Momma will catch us.”

I held up my hands, “All right then. Go on.”

“You need to arrest Asher Schwartz. He’s an evil man,” she said in a low, feverish voice.

“Arrest him for what?” I spoke while holding my breath.

Mariah almost got the words out before Joanna called her daughter loudly from the porch. I glanced over to see Joanna standing with hands on her hips, just as the wind gusted, picking up the snow in the driveway and spraying it around in a momentary white-out.

Mariah looked at me with determination and hissed, “Please, just do it if you can.”

Mariah twirled and ran to the porch. I remained standing there in the frozen wind, watching as Joanna hugged her daughter briefly before the two of them went into the house arm in arm.

“You drive,” I tossed the keys to Daniel.

He didn’t complain and started up the engine while I climbed into the passenger seat.

“Where to?” Daniel asked as he backed up.

“Back to Rowan’s, thanks for driving. I have an important call to make.”

I listened intently to Bill Sherman on the phone as the icy landscape became whiter. The pavement of the roads was completely hidden by the white stuff now and visibility was less than a mile.

“Thanks, Bill. You’ve been a big help.”

I tucked my cell back into my coat pocket and said, “Bill is a former colleague of mine at the precinct in downtown Indy. I had a hunch that he would know Asher Schwartz personally, and I was right.”

“Small world,” Daniel said.

“Bill is an undercover narcotics agent, that’s why I called him. And you know what?” Daniel was waiting for me to respond, but he was also paying a lot of attention to the worsening weather conditions. “Asher is big-time dealer…and Brody Gentry knows all about it.” My voice began rising with the heat of my anger. “As a matter of fact, Indy contacted Sheriff Gentry personally to discuss their suspicions that Asher was extending his business into the countryside. But Bill said that Brody didn’t want to hear any of it, even after Asher was arrested two years ago for selling BHO—you know, hash oil—to some minor in the next county over.”

“Why would the sheriff ignore Asher’s record?”

“Oh, he didn’t just ignore it. He pressured Judge Warren to completely expunge his record in this county. He was protecting Asher for some reason.”

“He had a record here?”

I nodded. “Along with the rap sheet in Indy, he had a slew of misdemeanor possession convictions and an assault on a jacked up girlfriend that nearly killed the woman.”

“It sounds as if Mariah is on to something. I think we need to have a little talk with Asher Schwartz.”

We came around the bend slowly and I looked up the hill at Rowan’s farm. The snow was coming down in buckets, but there was something else in the wind that I could also see—
smoke.

“Oh…my God,” I stammered.

The flames shooting from Rowan’s main barn suddenly pierced clearly through the storm.

“Dammit,” Daniel exclaimed as he pressed down on the gas pedal and we lurched forward up the driveway.

16

B
y the time we slid to a stop alongside the barn that was on fire, I had already called 911. The backside of the barn was engulfed in flames and the plume of smoke that a minute before had been wispy tentacles on the wind was now a giant black cloud rising from the structure.

“Where’s Rowan?” Daniel shouted at Gabe as he grabbed the boy by the arm and held him in place.

“He went in after Dakota and the calf. They’re in there!” Gabe struggled against Daniel’s firm hold.

“You stay here with your sisters and Seth. I’ll go help him,” Daniel released the boy and plunged through the open doorway.

My heart pounded in my chest. I took a breath and calculated the speed of the growing fire and weakening of the structure. Lucinda suddenly had her arms wrapped tightly around my waist.

The little girl’s red face was soaked with tears. She looked up and cried, “Da’s going to die trying to save Dakota and Midnight.”

Mareena was standing a few steps back, holding onto Cacey, and watching the spectacle with the blank face of complete shock. Seth was crouched beside her. His arms encircled the dog tightly as it barked relentlessly at the doomed barn.

Midnight—the calf had a name now? Shoot. Anger nearly glazed my vision. Why were those stupid men risking their lives for a horse and a cow? Deep down I totally understood, but still, seeing Rowan’s children lined up and knowing that they might be orphans in the next few minutes made it unconscionable. And now Daniel was in there, too.

To hell with the Amish’s ideas about God’s will and preordained fate. I certainly couldn’t stand by and let it happen on my watch.

“Stay here and wait for the fire trucks!” I shouted at the kids.

I relished in the wet splatters of snow that hit my face just before I ran through the doorway of the barn. The aisle was dark with smoke, but I could still make out the frames of the stalls as I held my breath, stumbling along. I counted the stall doorways, trying to remember which one Dakota had been in.

Muffled voices reached my ears and a surge of hope sprang to life inside of me, but it was short lived when the barn’s interior was suddenly illuminated by a spout of blazing flames wicking up the wall. I could clearly see the fire dancing in between the skeletal remains of beams and joists that were left in the far part of the barn. I was betting that in less than a minute that section was coming down.

Daniel was struggling with Dakota’s lead rope as the terrified horse jumped away from Rowan’s hands. I quickly assessed that he was attempting to cover Dakota’s eyes with a cloth of some kind.

“Get him against the wall, Daniel. I almost got it that time!” Rowan called out.

Daniel pushed Dakota forcefully into the wall. The lines on his face popped with strain when he looked over at me.

“Get the hell out of here, Serenity!” Daniel shouted.

Instead of running for safety, I joined him alongside Dakota’s quivering, sweat soaked body. With all my strength, I pushed against Dakota’s side, helping to hold him in place while Rowan reached up and secured the cloth onto the horse’s halter.

It probably only took a few seconds to get the job done, but as I shoved Dakota with everything I had in me, time seemed to slow down. I noticed that we were in a small pocket of smokeless space that was surrounded by a billowing black and gray monster. Besides seeing the explosions of flames from the rapidly expanding fire, sweat trickled down my chest into the cleft between my breasts at the ever increasing rise in temperature. The deadly scent of hot, scorched wood was held somewhat at bay as the smell of the sweat soaked horse hair bombarded my nose.

“I got it!” Rowan took the lead from Daniel and signaled for us to follow him as he tugged on Dakota. Amazingly, the horse that had been too paralyzed with fear a moment ago to save himself was now prancing beside Rowan, almost knocking him over with his sudden desire to run.

The bright light from the snowy afternoon beyond the barn door shone through the opening, as if it was a lighthouse beacon in a raging storm. I could see Rowan’s kids silhouetted against the white background and the dog’s barking reached my ears once again. Everything inside of me was focused on that place of cold, wet snow and safety.

At some point after Rowan had taken Dakota’s lead rope from Daniel’s hands, Daniel had grabbed me, tucking me under his arm as we fled the stall just when the boards ignited with a sizzling hiss.

Daniel and I clutched each other as we ducked and surged forward. We were only a few steps behind Rowan and Dakota’s shadowed forms when I heard the calf bellow.

The sound was sharp and loud in my ears, hitting me like an invisible bullet. I dug my heels in and pulled Daniel to a stop.

“What the hell?” Daniel exclaimed hoarsely.

“The calf is in this one!” I twisted away from him and grabbed the latch to the stall door, turning it.

At the exact instant that the door flung open, the fire reached the hay bales stacked in the loft. With a horrifying
SWOOSH
the loft went up. The ceiling was breaking up above my head as I touched the warm fur of the calf’s neck. It bucked, recoiling from my touch, but luckily Daniel hadn’t left my side. He grabbed the calf around its chest and buttocks, restraining it with his strong arms until I positioned myself on its other side.

“This is a big calf—too big for me to carry,” Daniel coughed, “We’ll have to scoot him out.”

There wasn’t any time to discuss the logistics of it. I absorbed what Daniel said and placed my arms around the calf the same way he had. As the back half of the barn came crashing down, we worked side by side, pushing and pulling the calf with all our might.

Death was just behind us and I didn’t dare to glance over my shoulder. The barn’s structure shuddered at our backs for an agonizingly long second before it splintered. The roof smashed into the loft’s floor, the fire devouring the ceiling above us in a mighty gulp of smoke and debris.

Rowan met us at the doorway. He flung his arm around me and helped shove us all clear of the threshold, just as it gave way. It barely missed us as it crashed to the ground at our backs.

The calf bucked up at the shattering sound, breaking away and running freely towards the house. The momentum carried me and Daniel forward and we stumbled into the wonderful, welcomed coldness of a drift of snow.

“Your back is on fire!” Mareena screeched, pointing at me.

Daniel rushed onto his knees in amazing speed and rolled me sideways, pressing my back into snow. He grabbed the sleeve of my coat with one hand and gripped my shoulder with the other. In a quick tug, I was free of my coat and in Daniel’s tight embrace.

Gabe came to our side and shed his own coat, placing it over my shoulders in a sweeping motion.

Daniel continued to squeeze me against his chest for what I thought was a completely unnecessary amount of time, but I didn’t protest. My gaze quickly passed over Seth who was standing well away from the wreckage with Dakota in hand, and the three girls who were kneeling in the snow beside their father.

Rowan was staring at the enormous pile of burning wood and metal that had once been his stable with a strange look of calm acceptance that sent a chill racing through me. The rush of heat coming from the shooting flames was so hot that it was melting the snow where we sat, so I knew that the chill that I suddenly felt was not from the cold. It was my gut telling me that Rowan had expected this all along.

When the two volunteer fire department trucks and the three police cruisers arrived, Daniel, Rowan and I were standing in the driveway. Rowan had ordered the girls into the house and the boys to catch the calf.

It had been less than ten minutes from the time that we had pulled in the driveway for the entire barn to be lost. There was no way that any emergency response by authorities could have saved the barn. The Amish community was just too remote for the fire department to reach it in time, especially during the snow squall that had suddenly whipped up. And the fact that the barn had been mostly made of wood and filled with highly flammable dry hay had added to the speed of its demise.

I buttoned up Gabe’s borrowed coat and waited for Sheriff Brody to reach our little group. Smoke was heavy in the air and the wind shifted, bringing a rush of the fumes over us. I coughed. Daniel tentatively reached over and stroked my shoulder. I took one step back and glanced up at him. He scowled for an instant and then looked away, shaking his head.

Rowan didn’t miss the interchange. His brows rose quizzically, but I ignored him, bringing my full attention to Sheriff Gentry when he finally stepped up to us.

“How many more barns are going to burn before one of you finally talks?” the sheriff asked in a raised voice.

Brody was speaking to Rowan and I closely observed his face go from curiosity about my relationship with Daniel to guarded disinterest with the sheriff.

“I’ve told you everything I know already. What more do you want from me?”

“Dammit, the truth,” Brody growled. He looked at me in annoyance and said, “I believe Rowan here, along with several others in this community, know who set the fire that killed my grandson.”

“Excuse me,” I thrust my finger forward, pointing at the giant bonfire that used to be a barn and seethed, “Don’t you think that we should all be focused on who lit
this
fire at the moment?”

“Maybe they’re all connected somehow, Miss Adams. I don’t know. What I am sure of is that the Amish have never been upfront with me during any of my investigations, past or present. How am I supposed to help them, when they won’t help themselves?”

The sudden appearance of a long line of buggies speeding up the driveway added to the surreal feeling of the scene. We paused from our conversation as two of the buggies pulled up almost beside us, the steam rising from the horses’ backs indicating the fast pace that they’d set to get to Rowan’s farm.

Jotham jumped from the first buggy and ran over to Rowan. He placed his hand on his friend’s shoulder and gushed, “I came as soon as I heard. Did you lose any of the horses?”

Rowan shook his head and glanced over at me and Daniel, “I was blessed to have these two. They helped me with Dakota and then they got the calf out, all on their own.”

I probably reddened a little at the flash of admiration I saw on Brody’s face and the genuine thankfulness reflected on Jotham’s.

Bishop Fisher joined us with another man who was unknown to me. The newcomer looked to be in his forties and sported a shorter beard than the others. I only spared him a glance, though. Anna King was on his heels and her flushed, anxious face got my attention.

“Rowan, is everyone all right?” she rushed the words out, as if saying them faster would get her an answer sooner. Anna stood beside the bishop and the newcomer, making no attempt to move any closer to Rowan.

“We’re all fine,” Rowan looked at me and said, “This is Mason Gingerich, one of our ministers and Anna’s uncle.

I nodded at Mason, who favored me with a quick smile before telling Rowan, “I see you lost the buggy. I’ll send Jacob and Jory over this evening with our extra one. You may borrow it for as long as you need.”

Rowan looked genuinely touched when he replied, “I appreciate that very much.”

A minute later, Shem Yoder appeared, along with the same group of men that had been working on his barn with him earlier in the day.

I patiently listened to the Amish as they talked to each other in German for a moment, not understanding a word of it. Brody didn’t look very patient, though. In between barking out a few orders to passing fireman and pulling the fire chief, Bill Doherty, aside to whisper back and forth, he stood silently, tapping his foot.

With a flurry of movement, most of the Amish men disbanded, leaving behind only the bishop and Jotham. I had already watched Anna slip away, heading towards the house soon after the other men began arriving. Fleetingly, I admired how the Amish handled an emergency. Several men, along with Daniel, were clearing out the shed on the side of the house to create a temporary stable for Dakota and the calf. I imagined that Anna was helping the girls with dinner, and the two teenagers that I assumed were Jacob and Jory, had already arrived with their extra buggy, before their father had even instructed them to do so. The Amish’s no-nonsense approach to a crisis was definitely impressive.

Rowan finally returned his attention to Sheriff Gentry and asked, “Did Chief Bill say anything about the cause of the fire?”

Brody rolled his eyes and snorted. “He assumes that it was purposely set, but he won’t be able to test for accelerant until it cools down. He found what looked to be a trail of prints on the backside of the barn that led out through the field, but the falling snow is quickly obscuring them.”

I processed what he said quickly and asked Brody, “Was there snow on the ground with the other fires?”

“Nope, this is the first one. Mighty lucky if you ask me for the guy to have an unexpected blizzard pop up to cover his tracks.”